CME revises daily price limit proposal for corn futures

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S. — CME Group on May 11 announced it had revised its recent proposal to increase daily price limits for Corn futures and options. Pending U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approval, daily limits on CBOT corn futures and options would increase to 40¢ per bushel from the current 30¢ per bushel, replacing a late April proposal to increase daily limits to 50¢ per bushel. These contracts are listed with, and subject to, the rules and regulations of CBOT.

"In response to significant increases in prices and volatility in the market, we recently proposed daily price limit increases in Corn futures," said Tim Andriesen, managing director, Agricultural Commodities and Alternative Investments, CME Group. "It's important that markets trade allowing for price transparency and risk transfer and that limit moves are infrequent so as not to prevent price discovery. At the same time, we recognize wider limits have an impact on many of our commercial customers. After significant discussion with customers and representative trade groups, we've reduced the proposed increase to 40¢ per bushel, which is a level we believe balances those two concerns."

The current price limit is 30¢ per bushel per day for corn futures and option contracts, expandable to 45¢ and then to 70¢ when at least two contracts close at limit bid or limit offer on the previous trading day. Under the new proposal, price limits would be 40¢ per bushel per day with a max of one increase to 60¢ per bushel.